Frank C

On Ollies with the lithium batteries, does Oliver disconnect the tow vehicle 12 volt charge wire? (Black wire/charge wire on the chart with a 20 amp breaker coming from the 7 pin connector, shown in the diagram). This wiring diagram is for our 2019 with wet lead acid batteries. Since tow vehicles typically don’t provide a high enough voltage above nominal 12volt DC to actually CHARGE the lithium batteries unless you add a DC to DC converter to boost the voltage a bit, which some Oliver owners have done.

Thanks John. Good to know your long term experience with them has been trouble free.

For anyone with another brand of TPMS other than TireTraker, do the operating instructions have the same “recommendation” for metal valve stems?

Yeah, that’s the recommended solution posted on the other forums, or going with the internal sensors inside the tire. Either way, a significant bit of cost and downtime to upgrade all 4 wheels. Very mixed feelings at the moment about continuing to use the sensors with the rubber valve stems and risking catastrophic rapid leak(s) if one or more of the valve stems fail, or removing the sensors and going without the TPMS system for now and risking an unmonitored tire leak. TireTraker manual does say metal stems are “recommended” but not required.

I have the TireTraker TPMS with the external sensors that thread onto the valve stem in place of the normal valve caps. While doing my spring cleaning on the Ollie, I noticed that all 4 aluminum rims have a wear mark on the rim directly adjacent to the valve stem (see picture). In researching this a bit, I found some comments on other forums about the weight of the external TPMS sensor causing the valve stem to deflect when the tire is rotating at highway speeds, and in some cases even causing the valve stem to fail. Anyone else observed this? Has anyone ever experienced a rubber valve stem failure while using the external sensors?

I bought this Garmin Mini 2 and a 256GB data card. Forward view only, but very compact and some nice features like voice recognition. Hides nicely between the windshield and the rear view mirror. Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2, Tiny Size, 1080p and 140-degree FOV, Monitor Your Vehicle While Away w/ New Connected Features, Voice Control https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0931YZ82P/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Z5M0YW178SD5J3MD7JTY?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Yeah, the Oliver is a battery black hole. Television remote, radio/DVD remote, MaxAir fan remote, power awning remote, awning wind sensor, electric door lock, door lock remote fobs, smoke/CO alarm, tire pressure sensors, plus my flashlights and battery camp lanterns. I carry quite a few spares of batteries in various sizes to keep up.

Here’s the wiring diagram from our 2019. The only relevant breaker is a 20 amp breaker on the 12v DC positive wire from the 7 pin. The 60 amp is between the batteries and the main 12v DV bus bar. If you only open the 60 amp breaker the batteries are still connected to the 7 pin connector.

Have you also posted on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc and asked folks to share the picture of the truck? It’s amazing how quickly some criminals have been tracked down after sharing a picture on social media sites. The way the world is connected these days, it’s likely that someone will share and someone else will recognize that truck as belonging to a neighbor or co-worker. If you can provide a nice sharp image file and give permission, everyone on this forum could repost on other social media sites. That would be a huge team of eyes looking for that a**hole.

A very sad story. Definitely a lot of lessons here for anyone traveling in remote areas. And a good reason to travel with a full fresh water tank and some basic non-perishable food/canned goods in the pantry. With the 30 gallons of fresh water in the Ollie, and some basic food supplies you could go for a month (or more) in survival mode with water rationing. Maybe I’m overly paranoid 🙂 but every one of our vehicles in the family has a very complete kit of survival basics, plus I usually have a bug-out bag as well when traveling anywhere. Too many sad stories like these folks, or even just the winter snowstorm back in January that had people stuck on I-95 in Virginia for over 24 hours. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/01/04/winter-storm-power-outages-interstate-95-virginia/9087146002/

Correction on the cost (and I updated the previous post). I had to go back and check my receipts. The Redline product is a bit more. $16 for a 14oz jar of CV-2 direct from the Redline website. $14 for the 16oz can of Mobil 1 @ Advance Auto. So not any huge difference in cost.

The Redline product is a bit more. $16 for a 14oz jar of CV-2 direct from the Redline website. $14 for the 16oz can of Mobil 1 @ Advance Auto. But this is definitely one area where I don’t want to be pinching pennies. And I haven’t used to Mobil 1 yet for anything, haven’t even opened the can, so I can’t comment on whether it separates. I’ve been using Lucas Red-n-Tacky grease in my grease gun for all the suspension Zerk grease points. It doesn’t drool at all, doesn’t wash out, great water resistance.

Interesting difference in specs for wheel bearing grease, even though both are the same NLGI service rating of GC-LB for wheel bearing grease. Mobil 1 synthetic lists an operating temperature range of -40 to +320 F Redline CV-2 synthetic lists an operating temperature range of -100 to + 500 F. And the Redline CV-2 label lists a drop point (the temp at which it liquifies) of >800 F. No drop point on the Mobil 1 label, but from what I could find on their website, the drop point is 550 F. So I’m going with the Redline CV-2 for my Oliver wheel bearing service project. Also installing genuine Timken bearings (bought from western PA authorized Timken distributor, and confirmed as authentic with the WBA app). I’ll use the Mobil 1 grease on our bicycles 🙂.

Wow! That is a terrible accident. Glad you are ok. Hope you are able to find a replacement trailer and can continue with your travel plans in the future. And I hope the video is enough to help the police identify the other vehicle & driver.

I just use a good heavy duty scissor jack on some 4”x4” cribbing to lift the trailer (but mine does have the marked jack points on the steel subframe) and then after raising the trailer I put the stabilizer down just as a backup. Chocks under the tires on the opposite side of course. Doing my wheel bearing re-packing now.

Yeah, the Andersen rapid jack or EZ leveler will work for changing a flat tire, but only on older Oliver Elite IIs without the Dexter E-Z flex cushioned dual axle system. On later Olivers with the Dexter E-Z flex dual axle, there is so much articulation in the suspension linkage that if you drive one wheel up on the rapid jack, the other wheel on that same side will stay on the ground. There have been a few posts about this on the Oliver Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/OllieOwners/permalink/540818246323301/ And what is it with all these companies that use EZ in their product names!

Things can be fixed/replaced. You kept your family safe, that’s what matters. And after time has passed you’ll eventually reach the phase of joking about “Hey, remember that time we drive off with the hose still connected?”

Nice enough weather today to start the Ollie maintenance with greasing the zerk fittings and repacking the wheel bearings. No issues get the wheels & drums off or greasing the zerk fittings. After pulling the drums off, good to see plenty of grease still in the bearings (Oliver did the previous bearing repack service), grease looked nice and clean still (first photo) but the two of the bearings show discoloration on the inner race surface where it contacts the axle spindle (second photo). The axle spindles look really good and the tapered rollers themselves in the bearings all look good with no discoloration, but with that discoloration of the race I’m still thinking it’s time to replace the Chinese bearings with the genuine Timkens that I purchased from the western PA Timken distributor. Discoloration like that is usually a sign of the bearing overheating at some point. Thoughts?

Thanks for the info/clarification John. 👍🏻

If you’re not hooked to a city water connection, even with the pump off, the accumulator tank that’s just downstream of the pump will maintain some pressure in the lines (accumulator to the right of the pump in this photo). That is what is providing the pressure for your drip. Until you can try the vinegar flush or repair/replace the faucet, a simple way eliminate the drip is to shut the pump off and then turn the faucet on until the water pressure in the accumulator drops to zero, then close the faucet (assuming you’re not connected to a city water hookup).

Yeah, the price on this was high but I’ve also bought plenty of cheap Harbor Freight stuff to offset it. 🙂. Here’s the company that makes the set sold by McMaster Carr. An interesting history to the company. https://www.lislecorp.com/

Very nice! I’ve been considering something similar. Boats often have rain guards above porthole windows but I haven’t found any long enough for the Ollie windows except for the Ollie bathroom window. So now I’m looking at re-purposing automotive sunroof wind deflectors to use as window rain guards on the Ollie, if I can find ones long enough for the Ollie windows.

I picked up this bearing driver set from McMaster Carr. Lists country of origin as United States. A little more expensive than the comparable set at Harbor Freight but I try to buy Made in USA when possible, even if it costs a little more.

Yeah, the picture isn’t quite accurate since they were probably photoshopped. There are two pieces to each leveler. The curved ramp piece that you drive on to, and then the separate wedge piece that locks into place to keep things from shifting, but yeah, I would think that normally the center of the tire would be located more directly above the point where the curved ramp touches the ground, like the photo below of the Andersen levelers, although they could have also rolled the trailer forward a little bit after putting the wedge in place.

Since you bought your Oliver used, have you ruled out a water leak as the source of the moisture you are seeing? The illuminated Oliver logo above the rear window is a potential leak point into that attic area where the television wiring is.